Thursday, March 13, 2014

From Dusk Till Dawn: Season 1, Episode 1

Beautiful creepy opening, a woman talks about “rising
again” as we pan over a beautiful golden Aztec carving.

From which we cut to a woman running at night, during a
storm, through a heavily forested, tropical place wearing very inappropriate
clothes for doing so. She is chased by men in loin clothes until she runs into
a man in an elaborate ceremonial costumes. I’m going to assume this is the past
and these are Aztecs. He makes another reference to “dusk till dawn” because
they’re really hammering the title and his two men drag the woman to a pit
filled with snakes. They throw her in and she is bitten repeatedly – until one
snake slithers into her open mouth and down her throat.

Cut to a more modern scene with two police (rangers
apparently) in a car, the younger, Freddie, looking through crime scene photos
of a series of dead women, all of which have had their eyes removed and at
least one has had their eye placed in a wound
in the palm of her hand. Nasty. I think the Freddie has invited the
older man, Earl to a Christening but it could just as easily be an excuse to
explain how holy water works (which I’m sure will be relevant later, given the
givens).

They stop at a shop in the middle of nowhere where
they’re regulars for Earl to buy some booze and to ask after the Gecko brothers
who just robbed a bank, killing a lot of police and taking a bank teller
hostage. A bank robbery? How very retro of them. Earl pockets a nifty knife
from the bathroom and goes back into the shop where he is shot, presumably by
one of the Gecko brothers. Damn, the character was beginning to grow on me. But
we have confirmation this show is not afraid of gore (which should shock
no-one).

Either we go back in time or the man heals well – because
we cut to Earl waking up in a morning going out, meeting Freddie and talking
about how his dedication to the job left with him hardly any time to spend with
his daughter before she went to boarding school. He’s not a very positive
person and he says no when Freddie asks him to baptise his child (time travel
backwards. Have I mentioned how much I hate shows that like to mix up the
chronology?) and continues to be really kind of depressing – but also giving
sage, fatherly advice to Jessie about making sure he spends lots of time with
his family.

All this talk about not having much time just before he
was shot. Poetic – lacking in any kind of subtlety, but poetic. As they get in
the car the radio announces the Gecko’s bank robbery and kidnapping.

Cut to said brothers bickering, they’re heading to Mexico
and Seth is not impressed by brother Richie’s itchy trigger finger. Seth keeps
the peace and they go into the shop in the middle of nowhere, Seth reviewing
the crime in his mind in the bathroom (apparently bothered at least somewhat).

In the shop Richie flirts awkwardly with another
customer, Jessie, and hallucinates her coming on to him. As he gets creepier
she calls him crazy which he is very very touchie about. She and her friend
Libby try to leave – but Richie is blocking the door and holding a gun. While
Seth, in the bathroom, tries to convince himself his brother is totally ok. He
goes out, leaving his fancy knife behind.

To find Richie holding the store hostage and claiming
they recognised him and threatened to kill him. Seth doesn’t believe him and is
very not amused. Seth starts to talk things down when the cops arrive – he and
Richie take the girls hostage to the back of the store, taking the time to
threaten the clerk while Earl is in the bathroom and Richie has another moment
resulting in the dead Earl

And Freddie, outside, hearing the gunshot. Seth barricades
and fires at Freddie to get him in cover while Richie shoots the clerk as well.
Just because. Firefight while Seth reminds Freddie that they have nothing to
lose

Earl is a tough old guy and isn’t dead – still gasping
threats at Seth and wise mentor advise to Freddie. I think I might like this
guy.

Unfortunately, Richie is still having “moments” seeing
the women they’ve taken prisoner turn into monsters. Seth is on edge worrying about
what Richie will do next including randomly killing the hostages (Richie doesn’t
understand why Seth cares).

Seth calls their contact/backer/helper Carlos (a big
organised crime blokey) who they agreed to pay 30% of their loot to, to explain
the little problem that has prevented them crossing into Mexico. Seth agrees to
up Carlos’s cut if he helps – Carlos agrees. Carlos also advises Seth to trust
his hallucinating brother because he “sees things you don’t.”

Seth tries to threaten Freddie with becoming the “Lone Ranger” again and, to
save Earl, Freddie gives up (Earl does Not Approve).

Flashback to Freddie and his wife and child and his wife
doesn’t want Earl to be a godfather – he’s too old and can’t raise the kid if
both Freddie and she dies (I didn’t realise there were people who still took
that aspect seriously) which Freddie thinks is a great idea since Earl is
already his father figure. She agrees on the basis of the relationship between
Freddie and Earl

With that “he’s-almost-my-father” back story, Freddie giving up makes more
sense and he’s now trying to staunch Earl’s wound. Earl is not amused by him
giving up nor is he happy with prioritising saving his life over catching the
Geckos. Freddie tries to talk to Seth to get medical attention (and distract
him from Pete, the clerk getting something from his safe)

Richie is still tormenting the young women hostages and
becoming ever more delusional and paranoid. And Seth’s stress becomes so much
worse when Carlos tells him he can’t rescue him – he needs to meet them at the
border at a bar.

While Freddie and Crusty Earl make their touching goodbyes (and Earl demanding
Freddie hunt down and kill the Geckos no matter what), Seth tries to figure a
way out and stop his brother killing everything that moves for shits and
giggles. Earl apparently dies. Richie goes to kill the hostages, Freddie ducks
into cover and Seth shoots him, injuring him.

And Pete the clerk takes out his hidden, illegal gun and throws it to Earl who
gets up oozing badass all over the damn place and shoots Richie in the hand.

Bullets fly, there’s a lot of dramatic slow motion. Seth
shoots Freddie twice more… and Earl runs out of bullets. Earl puts on his hat,
because he’s a badass, and informs them he will be waiting for them in Hell.
Richie shoots him then hears one of his hostages tell him she’s the only thing
that can protect him. Then we hear something growl – and Richie falls to the
floor cowering away from 2 monsters

Seth goes to investigate – Pete also seems to have died from his wounds – and finds
the two hostages giving his brother a good kicking. Seth is rather nice about
getting them to stop and one hostage tells him that there’s something really
wrong with his brother. I think Seth is very very aware. The two hostages glare
at him and leave (I actually kind of love this, they just up and leave glaring
at him. Screw this hostage crap, they’re out of there).

Seth sets the place on fire and gets Richie out. And reminds him about what low
profile means. Seth does an excellent acting job of looking very worried and
torn about his brother. They drive off

And Freddie gets up – he’s wearing a bullet proof vest
(he wears that all the time? In Texas? In that heat? Good gods man do you have
an air conditioner stuffed in your back pocket?) He checks on Earl but he looks
really dead this time – and remembers Earl’s dying wish – kill the Geckos no
matter what.

Earl is a crusty bundle of badass joy. It’s a shame he’s
dead (assuming he is, at this point I wouldn’t put it past him pulling a
Rasputin). His relationship with Freddie was really well done and the show
actually made flashbacks work – which is something, I hate flashbacks and
shredded chronology.

I usually wait before commenting on inclusion since you
can’t tell anything from the pilot, but this show does have several Latino
characters and the producer (and network) has made a point of emphasising that
so I doubt we’re going to see anything like Pilot Diversity.

The show has some bad tropes – but then, the film it is
based on does. If anything there seems to be some interesting subversion of the
tropes that were in the film. In the film Richie constantly hallucinated sexual
things from women hostages – and then killed and tortured them. Changing the
sexualisation to monsters is a nice step up and steps away from him being a
rapist which the show really doesn’t need.

We still have the trope of the extremely dangerous
mentally ill person which is tried and stigmatising and really needs to stop –
mentally ill people are considerably less dangerous than non-mentally ill people;
usually far more a threat to self than others but we have this “crazy psycho”
meme that will not die. However, in a possible subversion, Carlos’s words
suggest that Richie isn’t actually mentally ill – he’s psychic. So either this
is the “psychic powers look like mental illness trope” or “mental illness let’s
you see beyond” trope. Both are tired tropes, but the former is definitely
better than the “crazy psycho” meme.

The only women in this episode are victims and hostages –
but even they end with a pretty awesome moment, getting some measure of
revenge, freeing themselves and staring down Seth which I kind of loved.

It feels like writers were handed this show, shown the
problem areas and told to keep them – but spin them, twist them into something
better and try to pull away from them.

All in all – I’m in. Yes with all the gore and campy
glory that is sure to follow, this interests me, this is going to be fun, this
is going to be glorious and awful in all the best ways.